There is much amazement online at the news that the first female shogi player to score a victory at a cup tournament actually learnt the game after reading about it in Naruto.

Karolina Styczynska, a 20-year-old Polish student, was invited to participate in the 2nd Ricoh shogi cup in Tokyo as a guest competitor in the women’s group, and won her first match against a 41-year-old female professional player, becoming in the process the first female non-Japanese to beat a Japanese player in a formal competition.

Her second match against another 32-year-old female veteran resulted in a loss, but the Japanese media had already caught her scent and soon she was projected to (very) minor celebrity status.

Contributing to her status as human interest story of the day was the unprecedented means by which she came to the sport – she read about it in Naruto.

According to the Japan Shogi Association, her interest in the game was sparked when she was reading a scene in a Polish language translation of the Naruto manga in which a character beats their sensei at the game (this would presumably refer to Shikamaru playing his father) – after this she learned the game online and later started to compete.

Naruto fans have much the same reputation in Japan as elsewhere – not that its inexplicably much less criticised competitor One Piece has so far produced any champions or sparked much interest in traditional Japanese culture – but that only seems to have increased the size of her nascent fan club on 2ch:

“Naruto! Now this was unexpected!”

“Naruto… seriously?”

“Nobody could have predicted this move. No wonder she’s good.”

“It was Shikamaru’s shogi games with his old man, by the looks of it. Amazing that such a minor scene caught her interest and prompted her to master the game!”

“A single scene in Naruto and she became this good!”

“Wait, Naruto’s a shogi manga?”

“I don’t even remember a shogi scene in Naruto.”

“She even looks smart.”

“Right, even her expression exudes acuity.”

“She would look gorgeous if properly made up. Her face is perfectly sculpted.”

“She’s cool. And it’s great that she took an interest in shogi of all things.”

“For her to reach that rank in only 4 years of play is really impressive.”

“She’s at the pro-level in only 4 years, and a foreigner too – definitely impressive.”

“Well, it’s similar to chess. Even for a westerner it’s not that hard a game, I imagine.”

“She must have been interested in chess before, too.”

“Kind of exciting news!”

“I bet her opponent just threw the match to make for an interesting story…”

“Her face certainly is that of a manga-loving foreign girl, but that is a good thing!”

I don’t get it, why does this support the idea of a female league? Surely a unisex league would be more appropriate if a battle of the sexes is raging (I firmly believe intellectual competition should always be unisex).

All you guys are doing are just judging her looks. I personally think Karolina is above averange, but that doesn’t matter. It is impressive, that she somehow came out from this little country right into the spotlight by doing something impressive!

But seriously, this dosnt seem like such a big deal to me, I mean, I learned how to swim from playing Donkey Kong 64. A young westerner getting into Japanese stuff is bound to have its roots in anime and manga.

there be a lot of people not liking how she looks but I betcha I BETCHA that if she approached any of this guys for romantic reasons, they would so post about it like showing off a feat of strength and would so change their tune.
I honestly think shes cute, and very mature looking, she could look better if she had on the right clothes and make up, but I am enjoying the fact she found something that inspired her, and went for it and look where it got her. I mean think on it, most things that come from japan that pop up in here is about men marring their pillows or video games, or celebrating birthdays of fictional characters…or some creepy stuff…this is one of the rare stories that is very nice to read about that does not want me to bleach my brain.

yeah she isn’t bad looking, could use a haircut “bangs dont work for her, at least not that long”, some narrower glasses with more rounded frames, a touch of makeup and trimmed eyebrows. then only closet homo, mousepad humping basement dwellers would say she looks like a man

No need to be so mean, seeing as she reads manga and was so interested in shogi just from one scene, i wouldn’t be surprised if she was visited this site not and then. She will probably also do a google search on articals about her and stumble upon this den of criticizing morons

Dude its a fucking game, any example of a game that people play outside of the original country would do. Its not like there aren’t fucking online games for Shogi now, which would make playing other people incredibly easy. Fucking retard anon.

I’d still hit that. Could be much worse imo so I don’t see why you’d flip at the face. Even holding her self differently could change views of her. (not to mention have you seen some people after even a couple of years. They look like they first hit every ugly branch on the way down and then they look like god touched their face and was like…begone ugly!)

You mean your anime dakimakura? Thanks for the info, just don’t tell more.

But I can agree that her facial features are kinda manly… But I also think the photos are really not doing her any favors. Plus I think she should change her eyeglasses to something more fitting, those don’t really look good on her.

21:15, nice try, but whites and blacks are closer and above human ancestry chain scientifically than genetic trash that are the ‘false natives’ who are immigrants themselves – they didn’t magically pop up in america unlike what they like to believe. We are only claiming our birthright as your elders.

It’s not like the Japanese are alone in that kind of attitude. You’ll find it all over the world. Besides, I don’t think 2Ch is the best example. Kind of like using 4Chan to represent the best of humanity.

I think it’s more that it’a game only really popular in japan, so it’s hard to imagine a foreigner being good at it. I for instance struggle to imagine an american being good at cricket or rugby, and if one were to become pro standard in 4 years I’d probably say similar.

Actually there is one American player on the rookie list for Collingwood in Australian Rules Football. A massive achievement really, considering there is only that one professional league in the world.

Yeah, Americans are better. “He comes from the middle east TERRORIST!”

“Mexicans are taking all of our jobs!”

“Damn niggers”

…Seriously. America was more insulting to the Japanese than they are to them, especially post WWII..if Japan has any right to look down on others, I’d say leveling a city versus destroying a naval fleet is a good reason.

Or you could consider the fact that it’s a mostly Japan only game. Chances of someone that won’t have plenty of opponents or other resources to study the game becoming good enought to win against a PROFESSIONAL in 4 years is quite a feat.

Nope, that’s definitely Japanese brand of xenophobia right there. They’re like your stereotypical D&D elves; “we’re *SO* much better than you!” They’re looking at it with the same amusement as we’d look at a chimpanzee beating someone in chess.

A japanese taking up an aspect japanese culture is no big thing to the japanese. A foreigner taking up an aspect japanese culture and becoming good at in a short period of time however…
And then when the foreigner is inspired by a manga…

It would sort of be like a japanese person trying out for the NBA after watching the Scooby-Doo episode starring the Harlem Globetrotters and being good enough to make it training camp, but not past the final cuts.

Naruto was good and slowly it is becoming lamer and lamer, that’s why people flame. More and more people are quitting watching/reading naruto.
Narutos plot is like sandbox. alot of same shit and no matter where you dig, you always end up finding sand.